Kensho Watanabe

“He’s become a real definition of a mentor,” says Kensho Watanabe, a Curtis alum, conducting fellow and mentoree to the Philadelphia Orchestra’s conductor.

He’ll start the night leading fellow Curtis alumni and students through Glinka’s “Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila” and Bartók’s “Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra.”

“The alums playing piano are Benjamin Hochman and Natalie Zhu. The two percussionists are Don Liuzzi, the principle timpani player at the Philadelphia Orchestra, and also Mari Yoshinaga,” Watanabe says.

To put it in sports terms, Timothy McLaughlin is a "home-grown" player. He broke into radio as an intern with KYW Newsradio during his junior year at Arcadia University, in Glenside, Pa. He was quickly hired as a desk assistant and service aide,...